The G7 back is Gorilla Glass. On all the devices, the rear Motorola logo is a fingerprint sensor.

Ron Amadeo

The "chrome" on the G7 is all plastic.

Ron Amadeo

A headphone jack and USB-C port on the bottom of the G7.

Ron Amadeo

I can't stand these logos at the bottom. I thought this was something companies stopped doing a while ago.

Ron Amadeo

The Moto G7 Power.

Motorola

A notch closeup.

Ron Amadeo

The Moto G7 Power has a clear plastic back with coloring under the plastic.

Ron Amadeo

There's less of a camera bump on the back, but only one camera. The headphone jack has moved to the top.

Ron Amadeo

A side shot, with some bonus fingerprints. This thing is a fingerprint magnet.

Ron Amadeo

The bottom USB-C port.

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The G7 Play. It's easy to see the thicker bezels here. Also the notch is huge.

Ron Amadeo

The G7 Play notch is HUGE. I think it leaves room for one icon.

Ron Amadeo

The back is cheapo plastic.

Ron Amadeo

The camera assembly looks way cheaper, but at least there is still a fingerprint reader.

Ron Amadeo

The Play's bottom USB-C port.

Ron Amadeo

The Play's top headphone jack.

Ron Amadeo

Today, Motorola is announcing the new Moto G series for 2019: the Moto G7 family. There are three devices to take a look at: the Moto G7, the Moto G7 Power, and the Moto G7 Play. Along with the phones from Nokia, members of the G series are among those rare smartphones that can be had for under $400, and that makes them pretty interesting.

We were able to spend some hands-on time with all of them, but before we get into the details, let's load up a big ol' spec sheet and talk numbers.

At first the spec sheet seems fine. We've got easy $50 increments between devices, and while the SoC always stays the same, more expensive devices get better screens, more RAM, more storage, and better cameras. Then we get to the battery section and things get crazy. The more expensive device has a smaller battery!

Further Reading

The Moto G7 Power is a new entry to the Moto G family, and it lives up to its name with a whopping 5000mAh battery. That dwarfs the 3000mAh battery in the more expensive Moto G7, and it puts consumers in a confusing spot. If you want the biggest battery, you have to sacrifice the display, RAM, and storage—but if you want the display, storage, and RAM, you have to sacrifice the battery. It's great to see a bigger battery in a cheap phone, but not having it on the highest-end SKU really muddies Motorola's lineup.

The phones all have displays with notches for the front camera and earpiece. Amusingly, the notch size scales inversely with the price. The $199 Moto G7 Play has a very wide notch, the $249 Moto G7 Power has a medium-size notch, and the $299 Moto G7 has a small, teardrop-style notch. All three have a bottom bezel with a shouty "Motorola" logo emblazoned on the front, which seems ugly and dated.

The phones all have aluminum internal frames, but you won't see any of this metal exposed on the outside of the phone. All the G7s have plastic sides that get various treatments, working up to a faux-metal paint on the Moto G7. The backs are all different, too. The top-end Moto G7 gets a Gorilla Glass back, the Power gets a clear plastic back with an undercoat of color—sort of like a faux-glass back—and the Moto G7 Play gets regular old opaque plastic.

The phones all come with Android 9 Pie and a mostly stock build of Android. They also all have gesture navigation enabled by default. They all have headphone jacks, SD cards, rear fingerprint readers, and USB-C ports. One big missing feature is NFC: none of the models has an NFC chip, so you won't be able to tap and pay at the register.

Motorola is apparently hoping that a truckload of extra camera features will entice buyers to upgrade to the Moto G7. Exclusive to the top-end SKU is an extra 5MP rear camera for depth sensing, along with a paragraph of features on the spec sheet:

The big downside with any Motorola device is the update policy. Motorola is only promising one major OS update for these devices, and if last year's Moto G6 update speed is any indication, that update will come very slowly. (Android Pie has been out for six months and still hasn't come to the Moto G6.) Google has made it mandatory that OEMs offer two years of security updates, but Motorola is only shipping these updates every two months.

Further Reading

This update plan pales in comparison to Motorola's main competition: HMD's Nokia phones. Nokia phones come with monthly security updates and two years of major OS updates. HMD is a lot quicker than Motorola, too—the Nokia 6.1 took two months to get Android 9 Pie.

All three phones are available today in Brazil and Mexico. Motorola's blog post promises the phone will come to Europe in "mid-February" and the US and Canada in "spring." They will also eventually make it to Asia and Latin America. As far as specific stores go, all three phones will be sold "universally unlocked" at Best Buy, B&H Photo, Walmart, and on Amazon.com. The Moto G7 will eventually get Google Fi compatibility, the G7 Power will come to Verizon, and all three will get a healthy sprinkling of pre-paid carrier support.

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Ron Amadeo
Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. Emailron@arstechnica.com//Twitter@RonAmadeo